Prisoners of Conscience

Natan Shcharansky will visit Holland on September 29 and 30 at the invitation of the Dutch Solidarity Committee with Soviet Jewry and the Dutch Jewish community, it was announced by the chairman of the Solidarity Committee, Rabbi Avraham Soetendorp of The Hague. Shcharansky is visiting Holland to express his gratitude to all those who were… More ▸

Nadezhda Fradokova, the only woman Prisoner of Conscience, was released from prison last week and is now in Leningrad, according to Lynn Singer, Advisory Board chairperson of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Fradokova had served two years in a Soviet labor camp for parasitism. She was refused a visa on the pretext of… More ▸

Foreign Ministry Deputy Director-General Hanon Bar-On and two other senior Ministry officials left Israel for Helsinki Sunday, to prepare for the forthcoming Israeli-Soviet talks. His departure for the Finnish capital had not been previously announced, and it was not known what, if any, part he will play in the negotiations opening there Monday with Soviet… More ▸

The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) has urged Israel not to negotiate any agreement with the Soviet Union that does not also provide for the freedom of Soviet Jewry. “Obviously, the Soviets want to resume relations with Israel very badly so they can become involved in the Mideast peace process,” Morey Schapira, the… More ▸

Vice President George Bush spent the second day of his visit to Israel Monday touring the Old City of Jerusalem in the company of Mayor Teddy Kollek, and later had lunch with a recent Jewish emigrant from the Soviet Union. Bush, who arrived on the first part of a three-nation, 10-day tour of the Middle… More ▸

Prisoner of Conscience Roald (Alik) Zelichonok, 50, who received a three-year labor camp sentence on August 8, 1985 for allegedly “defaming the Soviet state and social system,” has been hospitalized in the Alma Ata prison, according to Jerry Goodman, executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Zelichonok, a computer scientist at the Institute… More ▸

Former Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Natan (Anatoly) Shcharansky was presented with the Joseph Prize for Human Rights of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. The prize, a medallion and financial stipend, had been awarded to him in absentia in 1977. It was also awarded to the famous Soviet dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov. The presentation… More ▸

Twenty-seven year old Moscow refusenik Alexi Magarik was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for alleged “drug possession” by a Tbilisi court, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported here. His appeal will be within ten days. According to the SSSJ, Magarik, who is a cellist and Hebrew teacher, was arrested on March 14… More ▸

Eighteen-year-old Leningrad refusenik Boris Lifshitz was forcibly inducted into the Soviet army Tuesday although he is suffering from ulcers, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported here. According to the SSSJ, this was “clearly further retaliation against his father, Dr. Vladimir Lifshitz, who was sentenced recently to three years in the Gulag for ‘anti-Soviet slander’.”… More ▸

Natan (Anatoly) Shcharansky made an emotionally charged appearance before tens of thousands of demonstrators here Sunday, saying that their solidarity with the cause of Soviet Jewry was responsible for his release. “All the resources of a superpower was not enough to isolate a Jew who hears the voice of solidarity with his people,” Shcharansky told… More ▸